Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Poverty cause of war according to Afghanistan's residents

Further proof that the fight in Afghanistan should not be waged by soldiers but by humanitarians and social businesspeople comes from Oxfam today. While people in the West believe the cause of the war in Afghanistan is the Taliban, a survey shows that most of Afghanistan's residents believe that poverty is it's cause.

After three decades of war, Afghanistan remains one of the poorest and least developed countries in the world. It is also one of the most corrupt. Unemployment stands at 40 percent and more than half the country live below the poverty line.

On top of that, violence is at its highest levels since U.S.-backed Afghan forces toppled the Taliban in late 2001.

The report, based on a survey of more than 700 ordinary Afghans by British charity Oxfam and several local aid groups, found that 70 percent of people questioned viewed poverty and unemployment as the main drivers of the conflict.

Nearly half of those surveyed said corruption and the ineffectiveness of their government were the main reasons for the continued fighting, while 36 percent said the Taliban insurgency was to blame.

The 704 respondents from around the country were allowed to give multiple answers on reasons for the conflict....

There are some 110,000 foreign soldiers in Afghanistan, 68,000 of them American, trying to quell a strengthening Taliban insurgency that has spread to previously peaceful areas.

U.S. President Barack Obama is in the final stages of deciding whether to send up to 40,000 more U.S. troops.

But ordinary Afghans are frustrated at the slow pace of development, endemic corruption and the inability of Afghan and international security forces to stop the violence.

Instead, one of the poorest nations in the world will soon see more American soldiers coming into the country. So our question is, how do soldiers fight poverty? Most likely by killing those who live in it.